At 5 pm we will have an organizational meeting for the fall for newcomers and all participants.
Centering Prayer is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God's presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship.
Centering Prayer is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer. Rather, it adds depth of meaning to all prayer and facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer — verbal, mental or affective prayer — into a receptive prayer of resting in God. Centering Prayer emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God and as a movement beyond conversation with Christ to communion with Him.
The source of Centering Prayer, as in all methods leading to contemplative prayer, is the Indwelling Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The focus of Centering Prayer is the deepening of our relationship with the living Christ. The effects of Centering Prayer are ecclesial, as the prayer tends to build communities of faith and bond the members together in mutual friendship and love.
For more information about Centering Prayer visit contemplativeoutreach.org or attend the workshop in the pastor's office at St. John's on Sunday, September 11, at 4:30 pm. Newcomers are welcome.
Nothing is more beautiful than the uniqueness
that God has created.
… You don't have to create the beauty
– you've got the beauty.
… You don't have to create the freedom
– you've got it.
… You don't have to create the image of God in you
– you have it.
… You don't have to win over God's love
– you have more than you know what to do with.
Thomas Keating, "Centering Prayer,"
Heartfulness: Transformation in Christ
